It was the courtroom face-off everyone was waiting for — testimony of high legal importance, and salacious sexual content.
Former US president Donald Trump, who has always prided himself on being in charge and in control, was forced to sit and listen to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, describe in open court a bedroom encounter that he denies ever took place.
“When I opened the bathroom door to come out, Mr Trump had come into the bedroom,” Daniels told the New York court.
Photo: Reuters
“The intention was pretty clear, someone stripped down to their underwear posing on the bed waiting for you,” she said.
Trump stared ahead through Daniels’ testimony, which often veered into graphic sexual detail despite the judge’s best efforts.
“My clothes and shoes were off, I think I still had my bra on. We were in missionary position,” Daniels said.
Was he wearing a condom? “No.”
Was it brief? “Yes.”
Judge Juan Merchan appeared wrong-footed by the adult material, ordering Daniels to “just answer the questions” after repeated objections from the defense, several of which he upheld.
Yet he was not the only one: at one point, during a sidebar, Merchan told Trump’s lawyers that the Republican was “cursing audibly” and shaking his head during Daniels’ testimony.
That had the potential to intimidate the witness, Merchan said, ordering Trump’s attorneys to temper their client’s behavior, a trial transcript said.
Daniels still revealed a plethora of unforgettable allegations.
She told the court Trump called her “Honeybunch,” and she described multiple phone calls with him — some of which she put on speakerphone to entertain her friends.
The encounter took place in 2006, when Trump had pushed to have dinner with her at a golf tournament, she said.
When she arrived via the penthouse elevator, Trump greeted her in silk or satin pajamas before changing into casual clothes after she teased him.
“He said it was a bit early, maybe we could talk a little bit and get to know each other,” Daniels said.
She recounted that he asked if she had a boyfriend, about the economics of the porn industry, and the threat of catching a sexually transmitted disease in her job.
“I said well, we were tested every 30 days,” Daniels told the court.
Daniels said their lengthy conversation touched on Trump’s wife Melania — with Trump saying “we actually don’t even sleep in the same room” — as well as whether Daniels should go on Trump’s hit show The Apprentice.
“He said I reminded him of his daughter because she’s smart and blonde,” Daniels said.
When Trump showed her a magazine with him on the cover, she joked: “Someone should spank you with that,” she told the court. “He gave me the look that he dared me to do it ... so I swatted him with it right on the butt.”
Daniels said they saw each other after that, but never had sex again.
Prosecutors are seeking to prove Trump covered up payments to her to hush up the alleged sexual encounter.
Trump’s lawyers called for a mistrial, saying much of Daniels’ testimony had nothing to do with the fraud charges that he faces.
Merchan denied the request, but added: “I agree there were some things that were better left unsaid.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
RSS